Once when some one was in a fury of indignation because he had bidden
a passer-by good-day and the salutation was not returned, Socrates
said: "It is enough to make one laugh! If you met a man in a wretched
condition of body, you would not fall into a rage; but because you
stumble upon a poor soul somewhat boorishly disposed, you feel
annoyed."

To the remark of another who complained that he did not take his foot
with pleasure, he said: "Acumenus[1] has a good prescription for
that." And when the other asked: "And what may that be?" "To stop
eating," he said. "On the score of pleasure, economy, and health,
total abstinence has much in its favour."[2]

And when some one else lamented that "the drinking-water in his house
was hot," he replied: "Then when you want a warm bath you will not
have to wait."

Socrates. Then please to observe: if you do not take care, they will set
you down as harder to please than a domestic servant or an invalid.[5]

A man had administered a severe whipping to the slave in attendance on
him, and when Socrates asked: "Why he was so wroth with his own
serving-man?" excused himself on the ground that "the fellow was a
lazy, gourmandising, good-for-nothing dolt--fonder of money than of
work." To which Socrates: "Did it ever strike you to consider which of
the two in that case the more deserves a whipping--the master or the
man?"

When some one was apprehending the journey to Olympia, "Why are you
afraid of the long distance?" he asked. "Here at home you spend nearly
all your day in taking walks.[6] Well, on your road to Olympia you
will take a walk and breakfast, and then you will take another walk
and dine, and go to bed. Do you not see, if you take and tack together
five or six days' length of walks, and stretch them out in one long
line, it will soon reach from Athens to Olympia? I would recommend
you, however, to set off a day too soon rather than a day too late. To
be forced to lengthen the day's journey beyond a reasonable amount may
well be a nuisance; but to take one day's journey beyond what is
necessary is pure relaxation. Make haste to start, I say, and not
while on the road."[7]

When some one else remarked "he was utterly prostrated after a long
journey," Socrates asked him: "Had he had any baggage to carry?"